History under the hammer

Maranello will soon play host to the biggest Ferrari and Maserati auction in history. On sale will be bargains, one-offs - and a used F1 car driven by you-know-who

Are you one of those people who thinks anyone could drive as well as Michael Schumacher if only they had the right car? If so, and you have at least £1.2m to spend, now could be the chance to prove it as the Formula One machine in which Schuey won five of last year's races is about to be auctioned off.

Are you one of those people who thinks anyone could drive as well as Michael Schumacher if only they had the right car? If so, and you have at least £1.2m to spend, now could be the chance to prove it as the Formula One machine in which Schuey won five of last year's races is about to be auctioned off.

The F2004 - chassis number 234, for all you F1 aficionados - is a highlight of what is being billed as the most important single auction of Ferraris and Maseratis ever staged. The sale, which will take place on June 28 at Ferrari's Fiorano Circuit in Maranello, will feature 40 rare road and competition cars from the 1930s to the present day and could gross up to £25m.

Surprisingly it is not one of the usual classic car auction houses such as Bonhams or Christie's that has been chosen to conduct the sale. Sotheby's, which officially closed down its car department in 1999, landed the job thanks to the friendship between Ferrari race team manager Jean Todt and the auction house's American CEO, William Ruprecht.

As well as being the first sale of its type to be supported by Ferrari, it is also the first in which every car will be fully vetted by the manufacturer's in-house authentication department to ensure only "genuine" cars are offered. Given the size of the potential market for high-end Ferrari fakes, several would-be vendors are believed to have had suspect cars turned away.

"There has been talk of holding a sale like this for some time and now it has finally come to fruition," said George Bailey, Sotheby's European managing director. "The majority of the cars were sourced from collectors and dealers in mainland Europe and North America with a few from the UK and, of course, some from Ferrari themselves, most notably the F2004. We are the only auction house ever to hold a sale supported by Ferrari, and its authentication department has spent a great deal of time ensuring that all the cars are genuine and correct in order to eliminate the pitfalls often associated with buying the more valuable models.

"The certification process is simply a means of showing that the cars which have had work done are honest restorations with a known history."

There is certainly no doubt as to the authenticity of Schumacher's F2004; since winning the races in Australia, Malaysia, Bahrain, San Marino and Spain last year the car has been safely cocooned at Ferrari HQ.

Although the company's Formula One cars have appeared at auction before - Bonhams sold Schumacher's 2000 car in Monaco last year for €1.4m (£1m) to a European collector - this is the first time Ferrari has offered one of its car from the past season.

If its £1.2-1.5m estimate seems a lot for a machine that only a handful of people in the world are able to drive to the brink of its potential (or even afford to have serviced) then the 400th Ferrari Enzo built might be more tempting.

This unused example of Ferrari's latest road-going racer (pictured on the cover), was developed in homage to the firm's founder and presented to Pope John Paul II in January this year. It is being sold fresh from the factory and is expected to attract bids in the region of £700,000. The proceeds from the sale of the car will be donated to the Asian tsunami appeal.

The drop-dead gorgeous Maserati MC12 factory racing car that won the 2004 FIA GT championship race at Oschersleben is also on offer at £1m, but that sum pales into insignificance compared with the top lot - a unique Ferrari competition machine called a 412 MI that could go for as much as £5m.

If it does reach that amount it will enter the record books as the most expensive car ever sold at auction. The current record stands at $6.49m - around £3.6m at today's weak exchange rate - bid in 1990 for a 1962 Ferrari (see box above).

The official reason for the 412 MI's sky-high estimate is that it comes with a history of North American track success, having been driven by stars of the 1950s and 1960s including Phil Hill and Richie Ginther.

However, an article written by Hill in Rosso Ferrari magazine some time ago claims that the super-powerful 12-cylinder engine (and possibly parts of the car's chassis) originally belonged a Ferrari 355S that crashed in the 1957 Mille Miglia road race, killing its driver, the aristocratic racer Alfonso de Portago, his co-driver and 10 roadside spectators.

In Hill's words: "Ferrari may have a huge racing budget today but things were significantly tighter then, so they salvaged the V12 ....[and] put it back to work again."

The event was among the most tragic in the history of motor sport. It put an end to Italian road racing and led to the introduction of a 3.0-litre engine capacity limit for competition cars.

For would be Ferrari owners with less to spare, though, there are plenty of cheaper models, including modern classics such as the 308 GT4, the 328 GTS and the 512 BBi (the latter being a 1984 car that has done just 300km). The BBi is expected to go for around £18,000. The sale of the cars will be preceded by the auction of 80 lots of recent Formula One memorabilia which, in the words of the organisers, has come from the Ferrari "attics".

Among the items will be a steering wheel that is expected to fetch up to £35,000. It will be sold complete with its gearshift paddles and the electronic "brain" that monitors a modern F1 car's systems.

Front wings, engine covers and even entire engines and gearboxes will also be on offer, together with a selection of privately entered automobilia including early Le Mans trophies, rare owner's manuals and race-worn crash helmets used by drivers such as Eddie Irvine and Gilles Villeneuve. A 1926 Maserati Tipo 26 racing engine will also be up for grabs for around £70,000.

The £38 catalogue, which are expected to become collector's items, are available by calling 020 7293 6444. You can find out more about the sale and see the entry list at www.sothebys.com/ferrariauction. Pre-sale viewings will take place at the Fiorano Circuit on June 25 and 26.

Going, going, gone...

Wonderful as the auction cars are, they will have to go some way before they beat the most expensive Ferrari ever to go under the hammer, a 1962 Ferrari 330 TRI/LM Testa Rossa. It went for $6.49m to RM Auctions of Monterey, California during a sale in August 2002.

As one of the most famous one-off cars in Ferrari history, and a racer that which won Le Mans in 1962, this Testa Rossa combines all the elements of rarity and celebrity needed to turn a valuable car into a recordbreaker. It was restored to its 1962 Le Mans configuration by the French Ferrari collector Pierre Bardinon in 1974. The 330 was raced at the Goodwood Hill Climb in 2002 by Phil Hill, the first American Formula One world champion, some four decades years after his win in the French 24-hour race. Still, it only ranks fourth in the league table of plutocratic motors, behind a 1931 Bugatti Royale Kellner Coupe ($8.7m/£4.57m), a 1929 Mercedes-Benz 38/250 SSK ($7.4m/£3.91m) and a 1931 BugattiRoyale Berline De Voyager ($6.5m/£3.42m).